Business integration strategies are used to cross-train management and employees, reduce ineffective communication and cut supplier costs. As you analyze your company operations, think of the different ways you can integrate processes to save the company time and money. Integration helps to streamline your operations and can reduce overhead as well as personnel costs by reducing the need for additional staff and the resources they use.

Personnel Integration

Your management team and employees are an important asset to your company. They become even more important when you take the time to integrate your personnel more deeply into the operations of the company, according to the Boise State Center for Professional Development at Boise State University. For a manager to be effective, he needs to know how his department works in conjunction with the rest of the company. The logistics manager should understand what the accounts payable manager has to do, and the sales manager should have an understanding of what the human resources manager's job is. This helps departments work together and increases efficiency. Integrating employees means cross-training employees to do each others’ job. If the press operator is sick, someone else can step in for the day, and production is not lost.

Vertical Integration

Vertical integration is when the company owns one or more parts of the supply chain that gets the product to the end user, according to the Quick MBA website. Having control of the manufacturing and assembly of products but leaving the distribution and sales to others is known as backward integration. Leaving the manufacturing to others but having control of the assembly of products and distribution to the end use is known as forward integration. The advantage of vertical integration is that the company has control over quality and costs at the most important segments of its product manufacturing and distribution model. The downside of vertical integration is that it goes outside a company's core competency and can be expensive to administer. For example, a company that assembles and packages products may not be proficient as a product distribution organization. It is not what they do best. To administer the distribution, it must spend money on personnel and equipment to get the job done. Vertical integration needs to be carefully monitored and planned to be beneficial to a company.

Data Integration

Data integration occurs when companies bring in new systems to replace the old ones or when companies merge and must integrate their computer networks, according to Microsoft’s MSDN developer site. Data integration can be time consuming and expensive if it is not planned carefully and if the proper experts and equipment are not used. Inefficient data integration can cause communication between the different departments to become clouded and slow. It can drag down efficiency, and it can have an effect on customer service. For example, when two companies merge, the resulting company will need to integrate the two billing systems to make sure customers are still billed and accounts receivables are still charted. When data integration is done improperly, these two platforms will have difficulty communicating, and customer service will suffer. Create a comprehensive plan designed and administered by an experienced data integration firm to make sure it is done properly.

About the Author

George N. Root III began writing professionally in 1985. His publishing credits include a weekly column in the "Lockport Union Sun and Journal" along with the "Spectrum," the "Niagara Falls Gazette," "Tonawanda News," "Watertown Daily News" and the "Buffalo News." Root has a Bachelor of Arts in English from the State University of New York, Buffalo.